The Charles' main screen closed for renovations

KENNETH K. LAM, Baltimore Sun

Exterior of The Charles theatre. The moviehouse's main auditorium will be closed through June, so that workers can install new, roomier seating and allow room for the adjacent Tapas Teatro restaurant to expand.

Exterior of The Charles theatre. The moviehouse's main auditorium will be closed through June, so that workers can install new, roomier seating and allow room for the adjacent Tapas Teatro restaurant to expand. (KENNETH K. LAM, Baltimore Sun)

Chris KaltenbachThe Baltimore Sun

Renovations to The Charles, Baltimore's 75-year-old showcase for independent cinema, will leave the theater's original -- and largest -- screen shut down through the end of the month.

Workers are putting in new, roomier seating and moving the rear wall, nearest to Charles Street, forward, which will allow the adjoining Tapas Teatro restaurant to expand, said Kathleen Cusack Lyon, who operates the theater with her father, James "Buzz" Cusack.

When it reopens next month, Lyon said, the original auditorium, which opened in 1939, will have a capacity of around 400 -- about 80 seats fewer than when it closed at the beginning of June.

Tapas Teatro operates out of what was the original theater's lobby.

The Charles' four smaller screens, added when the theater expanded into an adjoining building in 1999, remain open, Lyon said.